Fun fact: Taiwan claims exclusive sovereignty over mainland China and Mongolia as well as parts of Russia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Japan
Decided not to post a single link as there are tons of different articles about different aspects of it on Wikipedia. It's a whole thing!
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Exclusive mandate - Republic of China (Taiwan) and People's Republic of China
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1992 consensus which established semi-official dialogue between ROC and PRC
It seems like this is a leftover from the Chinese civil war and/or Chiang Kai-shek's authoritarian and murderous rule because one of the above articles does mention that these territorial hopes haven't been worked towards for many years:
Originally placing high priority on reclaiming the Chinese mainland through Project National Glory, the KMT now favors a closer relation with the PRC and seeks to maintain Taiwan's status quo under the Constitution of the Republic of China. The party also accepts the 1992 Consensus, which defines both sides of the Taiwan Strait as "one China" but maintains its ambiguity to different interpretations.
It goes further back than that though, probably to 1966 when Project National Glory was abandoned:
[invasion of mainland China] as the initial stage of reunification was effectively abandoned after 1966, although the Guoguang planning organization was not abolished until 1972. The ROC did not abandon the policy of using force for reunification until 1990.
Thought this was all quite interesting, so I wanted to share! It is not exactly light reading though so I also wanted to ask for documentary recommendations about this, and of the Chinese civil war in general, if anybody knows of any good ones?
Don't mind me, just finding myself going into a lot of Wikipedia rabbit holes lately 😊
This issue is a bit more complex and nuanced however. These territorial claims are left over from the original Republic of China constitution, which still forms the basis of the government of modern Taiwan. ROC has in effect occupied Taiwan after it was given up by Japan at the end of WWII, and imposed a military and political dictatorship over the island that lasted for decades - part of it's policy at that time was a goal of reclaiming the former territory of the ROC which was lost to the PRC in the civil war.
Taiwanese people have managed to reform the political structure of their government and establish real democratic rule in the 1990s, however by then, the conflict between the PRC and ROC was frozen in a "status quo" state where both sides agreed to some (not well defined as it turns out) concept of "one China" with 2 competing claims over it's government, and PRC agreed not to pursue military options against Taiwan as long as ROC continued to maintain its historic claims over all of China, and did not pursue any steps towards further independence and forming of Taiwan as an entity independent of "China".
It is arguable if the ROC territorial claims ever reflected actual will of Taiwanese people - perhaps of the minority of mainland refugees (and occupiers) that have come to Taiwan when the ROC lost the civil war. Post 1990's vast majority of Taiwanese do not agree with these territorial claims - however, China has made it clear in the past that renouncing these historical claims would be seen as a step towards Taiwanese independence, and considered as Taiwan unilaterally breaking the "status quo", abandoning the "one China" principle (especially the Chinese interpretation of it) and thus justification for immediate military intervention by the PRC.
The existence of this threat is why in public opinion polls among Taiwanese, most choose the "maintain status-quo" option, even people who would prefer Taiwanese independence in an ideal world - most do not see any upside in unilateral breaking of the status-quo and provoking the PRC into possibly destructive course of action. This is why there is no active effort to remove any historical territorial claims from the ROC constitution - the claims are not actively pursued either however (with some exceptions mostly involving islands immediately surrounding Taiwan and some in the South China Sea)
Definitely an argument to be made about this, and I would assume it highly unlikely that more than a small minority of the original Taiwanese were ever supportive of the nationalists/occupiers considering the many crimes against humanity committed in the middle of the century (emphasis mine):
(KMT in the above stands for Kuomintang, the nationalist party of the Generalissimo that held absolute power in Taiwan until 1991)
I do think that this is a more outdated point of view nowadays, a lot of younger Taiwanese people that I know are more for either independence or status quo. Anecdotal of course, but it's definitely not the de facto viewpoint of everyone.
Source: I'm a Taiwanese American, and my grandpa was in the retreating army from China to Taiwan when he was in the army.
From what I know the problem is Taiwan cannot declare independence, because it has already said there is only one China, and the CCP has said they may take military action of Taiwan tries to go independent.
So it is difficult for Taiwan to make any statements about how much land it claims, because even admitting to claim the island of Taiwan as sovereign could result in war. So they just keep the most ambitious claims from the earliest days of the civil war, not because they're serious about them, but because there's no way for them to make any comments on the subject without risking a war.
Yup! That's the "status quo" part of my statement. It's a very difficult topic and sometimes gets me very anxious for my family out there. My family is the only "American branch" in my family, generally people in Taiwan don't think about it too much honestly. It's sometimes annoying for me because I see fellow Americans only really see Taiwan as a pawn and not for anything else and it's a shame.
Edit: I read through @ylph 's comment and I think it more accurately portrays what I'm trying to say!
I grew up during the cold war with communism and I definitely knew people who supported Taiwan for political/ideological reasons.
But that history is growing a lot more distant as is natural. There are many stories of tragic migrations and military defeats in history. India's partition was another tragic story few people in the US relate to if they don't have a family background with it.
Sometimes I feel like it gets really fanatical and kinda scary. People can claim that they support Taiwan and hate China but at the end of the day, we all look the same to them anyways. Not that it's okay to hate on Chinese people, regardless.
Yes for sure! It's a really interesting thing honestly, regarding India. I grew up with many Indian and Pakistani friends (I feel like I'm gonna dox my own hometown if I get more specific lol) but I feel lucky enough to have grown up treating everyone the same.
Yeah the range of anticommunist thoughts and opinions spreads from rational critique all the way to hateful nuts like Joseph McCarthy and the John Birch society. (using very old examples because they are well known/ easily looked up.)
Ethnocentrism and racism and lack of multicultural experience are all three real phenomena. Here is a similar dynamic, I was encouraged in fundamentalist churches to support Israel when I had never knowingly met a jewish person. Most of the jewish population in my state does not live in rural towns like the ones where I grew up.
Anyway, I wish the best for Taiwan.
That would make a lot of sense, because it's certainly never talked about nor do you ever hear about it in media whenever Taiwan/China issues come up. It is indeed all about independence or the right to self determination. However I also found it interesting that they are not a UN member state:
I want to echo that @ylph did a fantastic writeup of the general sentiment in Taiwan is right now (in my experience anyways)
I'm not any sort of expert or know anything about geopolitics, but I'd think that because of China's influence nowadays sadly I don't think we're going to become a UN member state any time soon. Taiwan can't even compete in the Olympics under Taiwan, only ever under "Chinese Taipei".
I'm very proud of my homeland. In the last couple of decades we've done so much, including being the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage. I wasn't alive during the 1970's and 80's so I can't speak of it back then, but now it's an amazing country full of friendly people and good tourist places.
I saw their comment, yes!
That's actually exactly what triggered my curiosity about this! The Asian Games are happening right now (started yesterday) and seeing that name and the odd olympic flag they are using peaked my interest.
I wish I could fast forward and see what's next because the progress has indeed been remarkable. Might compare it in a way to South Korea since they were also under military dictatorship for decades on end, both countries only starting the democratic process around 30-40 years ago